Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

elizabethhull

HairyHandofDartmoor said:

 By working really hard until 6.30pm I managed to finish it. I've uploaded both assignments to my learner portal and feel
really pleased with myself now 🎉🎉🎉😁.

Brilliant !

Willowtree222

Yay! Congrats on completing your assignments. x

abba1772

thats great news about the assignments being done xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

Thanks everyone . It's a good feeling to catch up a bit with my course.

The weather is wet and windy today which is becoming the new normal 🌬☔.

I have lots of things I want/need to do today. I'd like to go into town with DS1, do a bit of window shopping (going to places he likes like the comic shop, market, etc ) to spend a bit of quality time with him, as I can only really do that in the holidays.

Apart from that I need to get our wedding clothes out and give the shirts and my dress a wash to freshen them up, because the wedding is on Saturday 😱. I've been very successful at NOT thinking about it and because of that it's suddenly come upon me .
I also want to hang up a few pictures from my Mum's house and sort out some of the rubbish bags in the garden so that they can go to the tip.  I also need to wrap up five paintings of my Mum's and some other items that I've been storing for my sister and give them to her at the wedding. At least that will create a bit of space in my bedroom!

I may not get all of that done, my plans may be a little ambitious , but I'll do the really important stuff and then see how much time/energy I've got left. I've already put a wash on that isn't wedding clothes to make some room in the laundry baskets, so I'll have to tumble most of that dry so I have space to hang up the wedding clothes on the clothes horses.

I hope everyone has a good Thursday and manages to stay dry ☔💧🌂🌧.

HairyHandofDartmoor

I'm going to make a to do list so I'm more organised:

• Get out wedding clothes and try on
• Wash wedding clothes and hang up
• Go into town with DS1
• Hang up three pictures
• Wrap up five paintings and bag up other items
• Sort out rubbish bags in garden

That actually doesn't look too bad now I've put it into bullet points. I just need to get on with things now .

Elisheba

Hi HH,  
I've been reading your diary avidly since I joined DFW, and just wanted to pop in to day I'm really enjoying it and woo hoo, go you!
Can I just ask though - is your signature right?  It says you paid off about £59k in 3 months... Without reading through all 1216 pages I don't know so thought it might be easier to check with you 
E

HairyHandofDartmoor

Elisheba said:

Hi HH,  
I've been reading your diary avidly since I joined DFW, and just wanted to pop in to day I'm really enjoying it and woo hoo, go you!
Can I just ask though - is your signature right?  It says you paid off about £59k in 3 months... Without reading through all 1216 pages I don't know so thought it might be easier to check with you 
E

Hi Elisheba. thanks for your support .

Yes we actually did pay off £59K in three months but there was nothing clever about it. We drew out DH's pension, made full and final offers and our creditors accepted 50% of what we owed them (actually that bit was quite clever ). So we became debt free and we're determined to stay that way.

DH doesn't have a pension now so we have to try and earn some money to put aside for our retirement, but I have no regrets about paying off our huge debt burden as it used to keep me awake at night.

Onebrokelady

Well done on finishing your assignments Hairy, you can have a bit of relaxing time now before going back to school 😊 

[Deleted User]

Well done on finishing both assignments.  Often the thought of doing something we don't want to do is much worse than actually doing something.  Here's to some excellent marks/grades for them both.

Will you be having a lot of house-guests over the wedding weekend?  I know your sister lives in Scotland and you go to stay with her.  It's lovely that she's coming all that way for the wedding.  Your stepdad will really appreciate the effort.  I hope the weather picks up for the big day.

It was obviously good for you and your DH's stress levels getting your debt paid off, congratulations.  I'd certainly encourage DH now to pull out all the stops  to build up some sort of pension pot again.  Relying just on the state pension isn't a comfortable prospect, neither is having to work until your 70s.  I know you have started paid work recently but it isn't full time and any pension pot you build up won't be massive, given the age you started it.  We all have total faith that you'll get a permanent job sooner rather than later though.

As for the floods, our hamlet and others nearby were evacuated earlier in the week.  We have been allowed back now and apart from difficult travelling conditions and lengthy detours because of standing water and a garden under about 2 feet of water we seem to have escaped a lot of the devastation seen on the TV news programmes..  Thankfully  the interior of the house was spared.  So far that is as we've been put on alert again as it's torrential rain now and there could be more flooding to come.  We've had several mini power cuts today already too.    I hope everyone is faring better than us though I'm counting my blessings that we escaped relatively lightly.

Elisheba

Blimey!  Well done, HH.  With all the frugal living you do these days, and the peace of mind you now have, I'm sure it was worth it and you'll both work something out and sort out your retirement and live well for your garden years